Day-by-Day / October 26, 1803

October 26, 1803

Into the 'wilderness'

Greenwood, KY[1]No known record exists of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac. Using Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that they didn’t travel far this … Continue reading Lewis, Clark, York, and several new recruits set out from the Falls of the Ohio bound for Fort Massac near the mouth of the Ohio. Clark’s brother, Jonathan, joins them for a short distance.

LOUISVILLE, October 29.

Newspaper clipping

Kentucky Gazette, 1803.

For a transcription, see on this page The News from Louisville.

The News from Louisville

LOUISVILLE, October 29

Capt. Clark and Mr. Lewis left this place on Wednesday last, on the expedition to the Westward. We have not been enabled to ascertain what length this rout will extend, as when it was first set on foot by the President, the Louisiana country was not ceded to the United States, and it is likely it will be considerably extended—they are to receive further instructions at Kahokia. It is, however, certain that they will ascend the main branch of the Mississippi, as far as possible: and it is probable they will then direct their course to the Missouri, and ascend it. They have the iron frame of a boat, intended to be covered with skins, which can, by screws, be formed into one or four, as may best suit their purposes. About 60 men will compose the party.[2]Kentucky Gazette, 8 November 1803.

Related: Louisville to Fort Massac | The Personnel Plan

Into the Wilderness

It is all Indian country on the NW shore and no settlement in view on the Ky. shore; of course nothing but wilderness on both sides of the river.
—Thomas Rodney[3]19 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 No known record exists of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac. Using Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that they didn’t travel far this day and stopped for the night somewhere near Greenwood, Kentucky.
↑2 Kentucky Gazette, 8 November 1803.
↑3 19 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 127.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).